Astrophysics

Programs

The space-based gravitational-wave observatory LISA will offer unparalleled science returns, including a view of massive black-hole mergers to high redshifts, precision tests of general relativity and black-hole structure, a census of thousands of compact binaries in the Galaxy, and the possibility of detecting stochastic signals from the early Universe. The broad objective of this study program is to imagine how evolved or rethought data-analysis algorithms and source-modeling codes will solve the LISA science analysis on the computers of the future.

This study will address the design and concept of future Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) experiments and in particular a future CMB satellite to extract cosmological information from the polarized CMB photons. The research will aim at deriving forecasts of the optimal (instrumental and observational) parameters of future CMB experiments, considering technical and hardware aspects along with theoretical modeling, astrophysics and statistics.

This workshop seeks to address several questions related to the development of statistically grounded strategies for detecting faint signals in the presence of both coherent and incoherent backgrounds.

This study will bring together space scientists, technologists, and mission designers across two workshops to understand the current limitations faced by SmallSat science missions stemming from the communication bottleneck, and together craft novel technical approaches for optical data transfer that significantly enhances the quality and volume of data returned by these missions.

The goal of this program is to formulate space applications and mission concepts enabled by optical frequency comb technology and to identify high priority technology challenges and gaps that need to be addressed to implement these missions.

The goal of this study is to identify science observational/experimental projects that are uniquely addressed by airship vehicles, and determine which of these science goals could be simultaneously accommodated in one platform.

This study will assess the current state of knowledge about planetary magnetic fields, track the progress of the new ground-based instruments and develop observing strategies from existing optical/UV telescopes.

This study is structured around the principal theme of diffuse spectral radio/mm/sub-mm observations that target atomic and molecular lines as tracers of matter in the pre- and inter-galactic medium and early structures.

This study was designed to significantly advance the capability to build single photon counting array detectors at submillimeter to ultraviolet wavelengths for astronomy, including optical single photon detectors for communications.

This program aims to take a fresh look at exoplanet characterization science from the point of view of new instruments that could do breakthrough science or that could pave the way for the next generation of space missions.

The goals of this mini-program are to bring together diverse theoretical and observational perspectives on dark matter particle candidates and their properties, astrophysical expressions, and the observations today and in the future that may solve the problem of the nature of dark matter.